Various types of theft deterrent and article monitoring devices are known in the art. Electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems are known having the common feature of employing a marker or tag which is affixed to an article to be protected against theft, such as merchandise in a retail store. When a legitimate purchase of the article is made, the marker can either be removed from the article, or converted from an activated state to a deactivated state. Such systems employ a detection arrangement, commonly placed at all exits of a retail store, and if an activated marker passes through the detection system, it is discovered by the detection system and an alarm is triggered. In addition, other tags are known that utilize ink vials that break and release a permanent staining fluid onto the article if the tag is not removed by an authorized individual.
Existing devices do not address the need for an integrated security tag that is difficult to defeat and easy to use. In addition, the existing devices fail to provide a theft deterrent tag assembly that allows easy attachment of the lanyard to the tag. Therefore, there remains a long standing and continuing need for an advance in existing security devices and theft deterrent tags that makes the tags more difficult to defeat, simpler in both design and use, more economical and efficient in their construction and use, and provides a more secure engagement of the article.